Very informative interview with Twins assistant GM Rob Antony

[glunn]

I stumbled across this interview today, which I think addresses many of the questions that have been raised in these forums.

 

I am at work now and have no time to say more, but think that many of you may want to comment on your reactions to this.

[cmathewson]

The most interesting discussion is about free agent pitchers. If you believe him, they had offers on a lot of pitchers who didn't come here for reasons other than money (geography, league, winning, etc.). They also refused to offer some pitchers deals because of health issues. They were "in on" Blanton until the very end.

[Mike Sixel]

So how do they fix that? Morneau and Willingham leave, Mauer begins to age.....what gets a FA to come here? With this excuse, every young guy would need to really work out to get a FA to come here, right?

 

I do agree, signing more mediocre pitchers would do nothing for this roster. I thought it was interesting that Gibson would be ready NEXT year, according to him. That clearly played into their thinking on getting both Pelfry and KC, rather than just one of them.

 

How will they measure that last part "everyone has to do better"? Wins this year? Progress in the minors?

[James]

For some reason, I thought someone else had posted this up here. I read this yesterday and I thought it was a pretty good interview though. Well worth the read.

[cmathewson]

So how do they fix that? Morneau and Willingham leave, Mauer begins to age.....what gets a FA to come here? With this excuse, every young guy would need to really work out to get a FA to come here, right?

 

I do agree, signing more mediocre pitchers would do nothing for this roster. I thought it was interesting that Gibson would be ready NEXT year, according to him. That clearly played into their thinking on getting both Pelfry and KC, rather than just one of them.

 

How will they measure that last part "everyone has to do better"? Wins this year? Progress in the minors?

 

Progress in the minors. When Buxton, Arcia, Sano, Rosario, Hicks, Polanco, Harrison, and Kepler are regulars, it won't be hard to get free agents to come here. Until then, we'll have to deal with retreads and trades like we made with Span for Meyer. If Willingham and Morneau can produce this year, we'll have more chips with which to trade.

[ashbury]

The most interesting discussion is about free agent pitchers.

 

Yeah, and I found him talking out of both sides of his mouth in that paragraph:

 

What we didn't want to do, is we didn't want to sign another pitcher or two. We were talking with Joe Saunders til the very end. There were some other pitchers we had an interest in earlier in the off-season, but we didn't want to get into a situation where you go in and you have five guys locked up and you basically freeze out Liam Hendriks and Cole De Vries and Pedro Hernandez and some other guys, the Dedunos and Walters. We wanted there to be some competition, and we didn't want to be in a situation where guys came in and they knew they didn't have a chance.

 

So then why were they talking to Saunders at all, at that stage of the offseason? IMO it's because the truth is that they *would* have signed him, at their price, and then figured out what to do with the guys they'd "freeze out"; but he turned them down. Just say that.

[jokin]

Yeah, and I found him talking out of both sides of his mouth in that paragraph:

 

What we didn't want to do, is we didn't want to sign another pitcher or two. We were talking with Joe Saunders til the very end. There were some other pitchers we had an interest in earlier in the off-season, but we didn't want to get into a situation where you go in and you have five guys locked up and you basically freeze out Liam Hendriks and Cole De Vries and Pedro Hernandez and some other guys, the Dedunos and Walters. We wanted there to be some competition, and we didn't want to be in a situation where guys came in and they knew they didn't have a chance.

 

So then why were you talking to Saunders at all, at that stage of the offseason? IMO it's because the truth is that they *would* have signed him, at their price, but he turned them down.

 

Don't forget about Antony beclowning himself on the spring Rafael Perez signing:

 

"We've signed him to be a starter..... and he's fully healthy!!!"

[jokin]

Progress in the minors. When Buxton, Arcia, Sano, Rosario, Hicks, Polanco, Harrison, and Kepler are regulars, it won't be hard to get free agents to come here. Until then, we'll have to deal with retreads and trades like we made with Span for Meyer. If Willingham and Morneau can produce this year, we'll have more chips with which to trade.

 

Please apply for a job as a scout for prospective FAs! Something along the lines of what you have proposed is exactly the way the Twins should have sold their opportunity, especially if there is any truth to the fact that it wasn't just "dollars and years". This "feeling sorry for ourselves", "nobody wants to come here", whining in the media by the braintrust was pathetic and sad.

[Mike Sixel]

Progress in the minors. When Buxton, Arcia, Sano, Rosario, Hicks, Polanco, Harrison, and Kepler are regulars, it won't be hard to get free agents to come here. Until then, we'll have to deal with retreads and trades like we made with Span for Meyer. If Willingham and Morneau can produce this year, we'll have more chips with which to trade.

 

So, every young guy will need to work out....how often does that happen for a team?

[drjim]

So how do they fix that? Morneau and Willingham leave, Mauer begins to age.....what gets a FA to come here? With this excuse, every young guy would need to really work out to get a FA to come here, right?

 

I do agree, signing more mediocre pitchers would do nothing for this roster. I thought it was interesting that Gibson would be ready NEXT year, according to him. That clearly played into their thinking on getting both Pelfry and KC, rather than just one of them.

 

How will they measure that last part "everyone has to do better"? Wins this year? Progress in the minors?

 

That is exactly how a baseball team does it. They have to wait for a core group of homegrown players to begin to emerge and then a team can supplement that with more agressive free agent signings and trades. It is hard to short cut this process. Larger market teams can speed it up a little if they do it right.

 

An interesting study would be to examine teams in the past 15 years or so that had losing records and signed premium free agents to contracts longer than 3 years. I would imagine the success rate of that type of transaction is small (as in that player was a key part of a contending team). The reason would be to attract that type of player you would need to overpay in terms of dollars and years and if they started to decline (or got hurt) you would be stuck with that contract, he would occupy a roster spot, and it would be difficult to trade for any type of value. The prime example I can think of would be Soriano with the Cubs.

 

Teams win with a homegrown core that they can lock up during their prime years and then supplement with free agents and trades. That is why the Twins have hit such a rough patch, they have failed to produce homegrown talent in the past several years that was worthwhile to lock up.

[PseudoSABR]

This "feeling sorry for ourselves", "nobody wants to come here", whining in the media by the braintrust was pathetic and sad.

This is a blatant misrepresentation of the interview.

 

The interview was neither pathetic nor sad. He sounds neither bitter nor incompetent. Sure there's some obscurity that's necessary when anyone discusses how they operate their business. I thought Anthony was frank all things considered. He certainly could have been far more terse and eager to toe the company line.

[Mike Sixel]

Depends on how you measure success, the team might not win, but that player might be good. If they are bad, it is likely they are bad all around, not just in one spot or two.

 

I'm not asking for Soriano, I'm asking for not the cheap, bad players, every year, and NEVER once in the last 15 years going out and getting that last piece.

[Mike Sixel]

I agree with SABR, it was a pretty open and honest interview, and no where did he say "we expect to be competing in September"....

[jokin]

This is blatant misrepresentation of the interview.

 

The interview was neither pathetic nor sad. He sounds neither bitter nor incompetent. Sure there's some obscurity that's necessary when anyone discusses how they operate their business. I thought Anthony was frank all things considered. He certainly could have been far more terse and eager to toe the company line.

 

This was blatant misrepresentation of my post, which you are good at.

 

I didn't say the interview was pathetic or sad, I said the way the Twins as an organization whined to the media after the fact was pathetic AND sad. FYI, Antony directly refuted St Peter's claims that getting FAs is only about dollars and years, perhaps he needs to brush up on his obscurity lessons, if that will keep you happier.

[ThePuck]

I'm not asking for Soriano, I'm asking for not the cheap, bad players, every year, and NEVER once in the last 15 years going out and getting that last piece.

 

yeah, the offseason following the 2006 season and 2010 season really stand out.

 

The offseason after the 2006 season it was like they thought we were so good, we didn't need to do anything really, just get some filler and everyone will do as well as they did in 2006 and we'll be right back in the playoffs.

 

After the 2010 season, it was like well we won a lot of games, let's ship off our middle infield and most of our bullpen...surely we can absorb that...cause everyone else will repeat their season.

 

It's like they don't see the need to try and get better every offseason...even if we have a great season, we still need to try and get better.

[PseudoSABR]

I said the way the Twins as an organization whined to the media after the fact was pathetic AND sad.

Well, what are you basing that on, if not the interview?

[jokin]

Well, what are you basing that on, if not the interview?

 

How about everything else that transpired in the offseason?

[drjim]

Depends on how you measure success, the team might not win, but that player might be good. If they are bad, it is likely they are bad all around, not just in one spot or two.

 

I'm not asking for Soriano, I'm asking for not the cheap, bad players, every year, and NEVER once in the last 15 years going out and getting that last piece.

 

I would hope you would acknowledge the payroll limitations up until 2009 when talking about the last 15 years. And I would hope you would acknowledge that payroll was at a pretty fair level in 2010 and 2011 (if not invested the most wisely).

 

As far as the free agents you are referring to, I'm not sure they really existed last offseason. You had a couple of premium free agents that got huge contracts, second tier guys that were really overpaid or didn't really fit a team need, and then a third tier of guys of the kinds you would complain about.

[PseudoSABR]

How about everything else that transpired in the offseason?

Everything else? Surely, then, you can find something in print that supports the notion that the Twins 'whining' was both pathetic and sad.

 

I may very well be wrong, but I can't recall anything that resembled 'whining to the media' from the Twins FO, much less that it was so craven that it was sad and pathetic.

[Ultima Ratio]

This all sounds... believable....plausable.

[cmathewson]

So, every young guy will need to work out....how often does that happen for a team?

 

About once a century :-). I should have added an ellipse at the end to indicate that not all those guys will work out, but enough will that we should be competitive when they are ready. And we will need to fill holes with FAs and acquisitions.

[jokin]

Everything else? Surely, then, you can find something in print that supports the notion that the Twins 'whining' was both pathetic and sad.

 

1) I may very well be wrong, but I can recall anything that resembled 'whining to the media' from the Twins FO, much less that it was so craven that it was sad and pathetic.

 

1) " I may very well be wrong..." Yes

 

2) "I can recall anything that resembled 'whining to the media" Me too.

[ThePuck]

1) " I may very well be wrong..." Yes

 

2) "I can recall anything that resembled 'whining to the media" Me too.

 

I see what you did there on #2....funny!

[drjim]

1) " I may very well be wrong..." Yes

 

2) "I can recall anything that resembled 'whining to the media" Me too.

 

I admire the use of a typo to dodge his point.

[jokin]

I admire the use of a typo to dodge his point.

 

Difficult to dodge something that doesn't exist....

[drjim]

Difficult to dodge something that doesn't exist....

 

Now I'm getting confused. Are you referring to your claims about the mindset of the Twins front office of which you have yet to provide evidence?

[PseudoSABR]

Difficult to dodge something that doesn't exist....

My (existing) point is that you don't have any actual evidence to support your derisive contention that the Twins whined to the media (oh how sad, oh how pathetic!).

[jokin]

Now I'm getting confused. Are you referring to your claims about the mindset of the Twins front office of which you have yet to provide evidence?

 

Your confusion apparently extends to not following the Twins closely in the offseason, or even reading the multiple threads on TD that discussed Ryan's, St Peter's and Pohlad's public comments on their approach to Free Agency and their speculations and ruminations on why, and why not, players did, or did not, consider signing with the Twins.

[jokin]

Your confusion apparently extends to not following the Twins closely in the offseason, or even reading the multiple threads on TD that discussed Ryan's, St Peter's and Pohlad's public comments on their approach to Free Agency and their speculations and ruminations on why, and why not, players did, or did not, consider signing with the Twins.

 

Please read the previous comment and then feel free to choose to do your own homework, or not. If you are informed on this topic as you were on John Lannan, I understand your confusion.

[Guest USAFChief]

That is exactly how a baseball team does it. They have to wait for a core group of homegrown players to begin to emerge and then a team can supplement that with more agressive free agent signings and trades. .

They HAVE to? Couldn't a baseball team assemble a core of free agent signings and trades, and then supplement that with a homegrown players? There is no one correct way to win a zero sum game like major league baseball.